Finland is an obvious case of economic convergence in the 20th century. Is this
due to the fact that the Finnish industrialisation phase started late compared with
Sweden and the EU15 average? In this article the Finnish post-World War II
catch up process is traced by analysing the major i.e., primary, secondary and
tertiary-industries. First we explore whether the Finnish catch up can be
explained only by late industrialisation. Then we delineate the phases of
structural change, and finally, we show how primary, secondary and tertiary
production and labour productivity growth have contributed to aggregate
development and catch-up. Our analysis brings new results on timing and
locating convergence. Secondary production had its biggest impact on Finnish
GDP growth later than in Sweden. However, it was not solely the advantages of
secondary production growth that caused Finland’s catch-up. The labour
productivity growth contribution from services was essential for Finland’s catch
up especially in 1965 80.